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People who underwent a weight-loss program and used a mobile application that monitored their calorie intake and exercise levels lost about 15 pounds at three months and did not regain it for a year, compared with no significant weight loss among those who did not use the app, a study showed. However, those who used the app but attended less than 80% of the weight-loss sessions put on weight at one year, researchers reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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Researchers said primary caregivers with adequate levels of health literacy were more likely to use or recommend weight-loss strategies for children, compared with those who had low health literacy. The study in the journal Appetite showed 58% of caregivers with adequate health literacy endorsed government-recommended pediatric weight-loss strategies, such as eating more fruits and vegetables, increasing exercise and reducing fat intake, compared with 24% of those with low health literacy.

Participants who regularly used Twitter as part of their weight-loss plan shed more pounds than those who did not, a study showed. Participants attained an additional 0.5% weight loss for every 10 Twitter posts, researchers reported in Translational Behavioral Medicine.

The annual risk of type 2 diabetes onset over a 15-year duration was 1 in 150 for obese patients who underwent weight-loss surgery, compared with 1 in 35 for those who did not opt for the procedure, a Swedish study in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed. The findings demonstrate that weight-loss surgery may help delay or prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes in obese patients, researchers said.

Study participants who used the AchieveTogether website, which includes weight-loss techniques from people who were able to lose weight and keep it off, lost about 4.5 pounds more than those who did not use the site, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The results suggest that online programs featuring successful weight-loss strategies may be effective in promoting weight loss, researchers said.

A study of three weight-loss procedures revealed that type 2 diabetes remission occurred in 41% of patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery, 26% of those who had sleeve gastrectomy and 7% of those who had gastric banding. Though the figures were lower than some previous findings, weight-loss surgeries did show benefits for glucose control, researchers noted in the British Journal of Surgery.